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England players 'scared to death' vs. Iceland - Greg Dyke

Outgoing Football Association chairman Greg Dyke has questioned why anybody would want the England job -- and claimed the players were "scared to death'' in the defeat to Iceland.

England's performance in Nice was almost as depressing as the dearth of options to succeed the 68-year-old, a decision Dyke appears relieved not to be a part of -- he leaves the FA next month.

"It's got to be somebody who really knows English football,'' he said, as reported by The Guardian. "But there are loads of them now, more of them than there are English.

"You need someone who knows about English football. But Martin [Glenn, FA chief executive] made clear you go for the best person. The harder question is why anybody would want it.''

It was a remarkable comment from the man who has been FA chairman for three years and set the well-documented challenge to win the World Cup six years from now in Qatar.

"I met Glenn Hoddle on the plane on the way back, and he said [they were] scared to death,'' Dyke added.

"Once you go 2-1 down, the longer it went on, the more scared they were. They brought on [Marcus] Rashford, who's 19, he's got nothing to lose, he wasn't scared at all.

"He was on for five minutes, he went past him three times. Once he lost the ball but twice he went through.

"They were just scared. It's the same in all sport. Really talented sportsmen can just freeze. That's what happens.''

Dyke oversaw both the World Cup exit two years ago and the Euro 2016 failure -- but it was David Bernstein who was chairman when Roy Hodgson was handed the reins, a decision he stands by.

"I believe we ended up with the best candidate, someone who's extremely credible, who had taken Switzerland to third in the world, who had international experience therefore, and who had a good club record,'' Bernstein told the Daily Telegraph.

"I'd in no way go back on the exercise that we did and I'm very sorry and surprised the way it's finished.''

Gareth Southgate, Hoddle and Jurgen Klinsmann are amongst the favourites to succeed Hodgson -- but Bernstein believes Sunderland manager Sam Allardyce should also be considered.

"I'm not saying we should have an English manager,'' Bernstein said. "But, of the English managers, I actually would go for Sam Allardyce.

"He's a very powerful character. I think he's got the personality, the strength, he's a good technical manager, he's very experienced and he's someone who perhaps could imbue confidence.

"Because, clearly among other things, there's a psychological problem with our players, where they seem to get to a stage with international football where they just can't cope, and that's manifest time and time again, year after year, in individual errors which you just wouldn't expect from players.

"You had Steven Gerrard's error at the World Cup last time which cost us, you've got goalkeeping errors. A general psychological malaise seems to overcome them. They seem to freeze.

"Someone like Sam Allardyce may have that personality and strength to do a little bit of what has happened to the England rugby team.''

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